PhD Position in Database Integration, Memorial University of Newfoundland [Canada]

PhD Position in Database Integration, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
The Faculty of Business Administration at Memorial University of Newfoundland is inviting applications for a PhD in Information Systems with an emphasis on database integration. The project is supported by a grant from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).


Project Description:
Database integration is a process with multiple steps, leading from the identification of the databases to the testing of the integrated system.?The central step of this process is the identification of database?elements that are similar to each other. This step is called schema matching. Human users perceive schema-matching methods as successful when they match database elements according to the same similarity criteria that the users would apply. Many automatic software-supported schema-matching methods have been proposed, using a range of different notions of similarity. However, existing research has paid little attention to empirical work: There is little knowledge of how human data integrators judge the similarity of database elements. A recent study has shown that a “one-size-fits-all” approach does not apply and that human notions of similarity are strongly affected by the database integration context. The proposed research is a study to systematically examine how human database integrators carry out schema matching. This knowledge will then be applied to implement improved schema matching methods.

Application Criteria:
The applicant will have a Bachelor (Hon) or Master’s degree and strong interest and background in information systems, computer science, or cognitive science with knowledge of databases or knowledge representation. Interest (and preferably experience) in both technical and empirical research is required.
Applications must meet the regular admission criteria and will undergo the regular admissions process for the PhD program.

Funding:
The Faculty of Business Administration will provide support to all admitted students for a period of four years. The level of support will be competitive with that offered by other Canadian universities, and may consist of a combination of grant, research assistantship, and teaching assistantship.

Information and Application:
The deadline for applications is March 1, 2009.

Late applications may be considered as time and resources permit. Please contact Dr. Joerg Evermann at jevermann[ at ]mun.ca for further information about the project.

Information about the PhD program and the application procedure can be found here.